Missouri Western State Univesity
Liberal Arts and Sciences College
English, Foreign Languages, and Journalism (EFLJ) Department
Fall 2006
ENG 210-02 (10783) TTh 9:30 - 11 a.m. in Popplewell 102
ENG 210-03 (10785) TTh 1am – 12:30 pm in Eder 210
Dr. Jane Frick
Professor of English and Prairie Lands Writing Project Director
Office: Eder Hall, Room 201
Office phone: 816 271-4315
Missouri Western Email: frick@missouriwestern.edu
Office Hours: 1 – 3 TTH; 9-12 W
Other times by appointment
ENG 21003 Approaches to Literature: To Be an American
Course Catalog Description: ENG 210 Approaches to Literature (3) F, Sp, Su. A General Studies course emphasizing ways of reading and writing about poetry, fiction and drama. Various thematic approaches may be offered. May not be repeated for credit.
ENG 210 Goals, Objectives and Means: See http://www.missouriwestern.edu/EFLJ/eng210.asp for the Department of English, Foreign Languages, and Journalism goals and objectives and the state-level competencies for this course—which fulfills a Category IV General Studies requirement.
Course Theme: We will focus on what it means to be an American by studying literary exemplars written by mainstream authors as well as a variety of women, minority, and ethnic authors whose works until recently have been ignored and/or deemed marginal. How do these texts shape and/or frame our country’s history, our culture, and our identity?
Required Text:
Lauter, Paul, ed. The Heath Anthology of American Literature. Concise Ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2004.
Course Grade:
Points will be awarded for all evaluated course projects. At the end of the term, I will divide your points by the number of possible points and award grades on the basis of the following percentages:
90-99% Course Grade A
80-89% Course Grade B
70-79% Course Grade C
60-69% Course Grade D
Below 60% Course Grade F
I anticipate the following number of possible points for the term:
Up to 250 possible points for in-class activities (writings, presentations, reading logs, quizzes, etc.) which will be allocated in 5 - 50 points per activity. No make-ups or late work will be accepted for activities completed in class.
250 possible points for poster project session. (Details about the assignment will be available to you by September 15.)
250 possible points for the mid-term short-answer and essay exam on Tuesday, October 17.
250 possible points for the final short-answer and essay exam
Document Format Requirements
You need to be sure that you have stored all of your writings for this course in a folder in your [P] drive, so that you can access them in class as needed. Unless instructed otherwise, print all documents in 12-point Times New Roman, double spaced. In the upper-right hand header, put your first and last name and page number. Under your name, include the date you print the writing. Add a title, centered, at the top of the first page of text.
Attendance Policy
Come to class. There are no makeup points for missing work completed in class and for which points are assigned on days you are absent—unless you are excused from class that day for a university-sanctioned absence. Papers and projects are due at the beginning of the hour on the assigned date. Late submissions will be lowered points equivalent to one letter grade per day late.
Students with Disabilities
Any student in this course who has a disability that prevents or hinders the completion of class requirements must notify me immediately so that provisions may be made for any assistance which is needed.
Academic Honesty Policy and Due Process
Academic honesty is required in all academic endeavors. Violations of academic honesty include any instance of plagiarism, cheating, seeking credit for another’s work, falsifying documents or academic records, or any other fraudulent activity. Violations of academic honesty may result in a failing grade on the assignment, failure in the course, or expulsion from the University. When a student’s grade has been affected, violations of academic honesty will be reported to the Provost or designated representative on the Academic Honesty Violation Report forms. Please see the 2006-07 Student Handbook and Calendar on page 21 for specific activities identified as violations of this policy and the student due process procedure. This handbook is also available online at http://www.missouriwestern.edu/handbook/index.pdf.
It is expected that all students will submit their own work in this course. Plagiarism or cheating on papers or tests is not acceptable. The first instance of plagiarism will result in a failing grade, or 0-60% of possible points, on the assignment. The second instance of plagiarism will result in a failing grade for the course.
Tentative Course Plan
Detailed assignments, handouts and materials will be available to you for downloading and printing from the O drive: English folder/Frick folder/ENG 210 folder. Reading assignments listed below are from The Heath Anthology; be sure that you read these texts carefully before you come to class.
"To read without reflecting is like eating without digesting." —Kenneth Burke, rhetorician and composition scholar
"As soon as I open [a book], I occupy the book, I stomp around in it. I underline passages, scribble in the margins, leave my mark. . . . I like to be able to hear myself responding to a book, answering it, agreeing and disagreeing in a manner I recognize as peculiarly my own"—George Bernard Shaw, playwright
Week One
T 8/29: M. L. King, 265, “I Have a Dream” 2266-2269
Sonia Sanchez, 2613-2612, “A Letter to Dr. Martin Luther King,” 2616-2618
Th 8/311: Benjamin Franklin, 365-367, “The Way to Wealth” 367 – 373, portion of “The Autobiography,” beginning with the last paragraph on page 427 to page 434
Week Two
T 9/5: J. Hector St. John de Crevecoeur, 435, “What Is an American?” 441 – 446
Nathaniel Hawthorne, 953-955, Young Goodman Brown,” 968 - 976
Th 9/7: John and Abigail Adams, 471, “Letter from Abigail to John” 473-374; “John to Abigail,” 474-476
Week Three
T 9/12: Thomas Jefferson, 478-480, “A Declaration by the Representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress Assembled” 481 – 484
Elizabeth Cady Stanton, 862-864, “A Declaration of Sentiments” 864-866
Th 9/14: Phyllis Wheatley, 569-570, “On Being Brought from Africa to America,” 575- 576
Frederick Douglass, 866, “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave,” 875-897
Harriet Ann Jacobs, 841-843, “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl” 843 – 855
Week Four
T 9/19: Ralph Waldo Emerson, 689 – 691
Henry David Thoreau, 749 – 751, “Resistance to Civil Government,” 751 765, “Where I Lived, and What I Lived For,” 765 – 782
Th 9/21: Abraham Lincoln, 834, “Address at the Dedication of the Gettysburg National Cemetery,” 835-836
William Cullen Bryant, 1200 – 1201, “Abraham Lincoln,” 1204
Walt Whitman, 1209 – 1211, “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d,” 1286 – 1294
Robert Lowell, 2319, “For the Union Dead,” 2324 - 2326
Week Five
T 9/ 26: “African American Folktales,” 1350 – 1358
Paul Laurence Dunbar, 1422, “Lyrics of Lowly Life,” 1423 – 1428
Claude McKay, 2043, “The Harlem Dancer,” “If We Must Die,” “The Lynching,” “America,” 2043 - 2045
Th 9/28: Booker Taliaferro Washington, 1736 – 1738, “Chapter XIV: The Atlanta Exposition Address,” 1739 – 1746
Week Six
T 10/3: Note: Forbes Convocation – 9:30 am class will not meet this day
W. E. B. Du Bois, 1747 – 1749, “Chapter III: Of Mr. Booker T. Washington and Others,” 1754 – 1762
Jean Toomer, 1997 – 1998, “Blood-Burning Moon,” 2000 – 2006
Th 10/5: Zora Neale Hurston, 2034 “Sweat,” 2035 – 2042
Week Seven
T 10/10: Langston Hughes 2006-2008, “The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” “The Weary Blues,” “Johannesburg Mines,” “I, Too,” “Dream Variations,” “Harlem,” 2008 – 2011
Gwendolyn Brooks, 2312, “The Mother,” “We Real Cool,” “A Bronzeville Mother Loiters in Mississippi. Meanwhile a Mississippi Mother Burns Bacon,” “The Last Quatrain of the Ballad of Emmett Till,” 2313 – 2315
Th 10/12: Toni Cade Bambara,” 2464-2465 “The Lesson,” 2465-2471
Ralph Waldo Ellison, 2207, “King of the Bingo Game,” 2208 – 2214
Week Eight
T 10/17: Midterm Exam
Th 10/19: Emily Dickinson, 1295-1298, A selection of her poems will be assigned from pages 1298 – 1318
Week Nine
T 10/24: Sarah Orne Jewett, 1634-1636, “A White Heron,” 1636-1642
Mary E. Wilkins Freeman, 1642-1644, “The Revolt of ‘Mother’” 1644-1654
Charlotte Perkins Gilman, 1596-1597, “The Yellow Wall-Paper,” 1597-1601
Th 10/26: No class – Instructor at Colloquium on Writing Assessment – Southwest Missouri State University
Week Ten
T 10:31: Edith Maud Eaton, 1670-1671, “In the Land of the Free,” 1672-1677
Gertrude Bonnin (Zitkala-Sa), 1686, “The School Days of an Indian Girl,” 1687 - 1695
Tillie Olsen, 2183-2184 “I Stand Here Ironing,” 2183 – 2190
Leslie Marmon Silko, 2512 – 2514 “Lullaby,” 2514 – 2520
Th 11/2: Flannery O’Connor, 2240-242, “A Good Man Is Hard to Find,” 2242- 2251
Week Eleven
T 11/7: Bernard Malamud, “The Magic Barrel,” 2196 – 2206
Th 11/9: Edith Wharton, 1771-1772, “Roman Fever,” 1773 – 1782
Week Twelve
T 11/14: F. Scott Fitzgerald, 1920 – 1922 “Babylon Revisited,” 1922 – 1936
Ernest Hemingway, 1949, “Hills Like White Elephants,” 1950 – 1952
Th 11/17 No class – instructor will be at National Writing Project meeting in Pittsburgh
Week Thirteen
T 11/21: Poster Presentation Session
Th 11/23: No class – Thanksgiving break
Week Fourteen
T 11/28: Rudolfo A. Anaya, 2445 – 2447, “Bless Me, Ultima: Dieciocho,” 2447 – 2455
Helena Maria Viramontes, 2541, “The Cariboo Café,” 2542- 2551
Th 11/30: Louise Erdrich, 2530, “Love Medicine: Saint Marie,” 2531 – 2542
Sherman Alexie, 2552-2553, “Because My Father Always Said He Was the Only Indian Who Saw Jim Hendrix Play ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’ at Woodstock,” 2553-2560
Week Fifteen
T 12/5: Samuel Langhorne Clemens, 1359-1361, “The War Prayer,” 1399-1401
Walt Whitman, “Beat! Beat! Drums!” 1284-1285
“Vietnam Conflict,” 2560
Denise Levertov, “Life at War,” 2560-2562, “What Were They Like?” 2562
Robert Bly, “The Teeth Mother Naked at Last,” 2565-2571
Tim O’Brien, “In the Field,” 2571-2579
Yusef Komunyakaa, “Prisoners,” 2581-2582
Th 12/9: Robert Creeley, 2328, “America,” 2332
Allen Ginsberg, 2366, “America,” 2375-2377
Gary Soto, 2659, “Mexicans Begin Jogging,” 2662
Week Sixteen: Final Examination
T 12/12: Final Exam from 11:30 am – 1:20 pm for ENG21003 in EDER 210
Th 12/14: Final Exam from 8:30 – 10:20 am for ENG21002 in Popplewell 102